Rocketwoman
by mattjdupree
Summary: During the battle on the launchpad, Anne remembers a pair of statistics, does some quick mental math, and is terrified. Reality ensues, then continues ensuing. (Minor Anne whump as a side effect of a focus on realistic physics and legalese.)
1. Chapter 1: Merlot

Title: Rocketman

Description: During the battle on the launchpad, Anne remembers a pair of statistics, does some quick mental math, and is terrified. Reality ensues, then continues ensuing.

-Rocketwoman-

Disclaimer: "Venom", "Eddie Brock", "Anne Weying", and "The Life Foundation" are intellectual property owned by Sony Entertainment. I claim no ownership over these characters, nor any others borrowed from their 2018 movie appearance "Venom." I release this story for free and intend no monetary nor other harm toward Sony Entertainment.

-Rocketwoman-

Chapter 1: Merlot

-Rocketwoman-

It wasn't a big statistic. Just a little number, a saying from the rocket industry that someone had leveled against the Life Foundation, back when they were first constructing the SF launchpad:

" _The launch of a Saturn V can ignite grass within a mile radius from the sound energy alone."_

Anne shook her head. Not important; the Life Foundation shuttle was a completely different spacecraft, and now that the-

" _At launch, the Life Foundation spacecraft outputs 1.2 times the thrust of the Apollo missions' Saturn V rockets."_

Anne's view snapped away from the camera feed, back to the window. Forget the Symbiotes; was she even safe from the rocket launch? The pad couldn't be further than a half mile out! She didn't want to imagine what kind of damage would be happening up close.

As if to set in the urgency of the moment, the mission control center's automated computer informed her of the time to launch: "T minus one minute."

"Holy FUCK." Casting about on the desks, Anne tried - and failed - to keep the panic from setting in. "Fuck fuck- damnit-"

Papers, computer monitors, and halves of human bodies were strewn across the floor of the mission control center. She had seen that before, of course, but now it seemed far more visceral, far more dangerous, considering any blood-soaked piece of paper could hold the instructions to abort the launch.

She assumed that the guy who could stop the rocket would be in the middle row, maybe even the middle computer. Running around the control stations cost her ten whole seconds of the countdown. How long was left? She didn't have time to look. Any time was too long.

She snatched up the first paper she saw on the middle desk. It showed some graphs, some quantity versus distance, with different San Francisco landmarks marked on each chart. Her experienced lawyer's eye caught the words "auto sequence," "noise," "throttle," "too high," and "permits." She tossed the paper away, grabbing for the next one. This, too, had something to do with noise.

Risking a glance at the clock, Anne stopped dead at the scene on the other monitor. Eddie, without Venom, was walking away from the lip of the launchpad exhaust director. But behind him- "EDDIE!"

The other Symbiote, the silver one, rammed what would be best be described as a plate of metal right through Eddie's ribcage. Even through the grainy camera feed, Anne could see the blood spray.

She stared, frozen in shock, even as thoughts competed for her attention, urging her to get keep searching.

" _It's up to you to stop the silver Symbiote!"  
_ " _The rocket exhaust might kill you this close to the pad!"  
_ " _MOVE, DAMNIT!"_

Anne took a faltering step, directly into a pool of blood. Her footing went out from under her, sending her collapsing to the ground. Her head hit hard, leaving her blinking for a number of seconds.

In her daze, a glint of gold stood out to her - a simple gold band, on the finger of the body of a scientist in the row behind her. And this scientist had almost the same injury Eddie had just received. It wasn't the same thing that had killed everyone else, and that was the only body in that row. Maybe…?

"Ten," the loudspeaker announced.

Anne scrambled beneath the desk, toward the scientist's body.

"Nine,"

The hole through this man's body was straight through, front to back. That would have had him sitting…

"Eight,"

Anne threw herself at the desk with the frequency generator she'd used before, her eyes flicking over every scrap of paper.

"Seven,"

A red bar caught her eye. **Launch abort sequence**. Yes!

"Six,"

The sequence listed some sort of code for the SSEN input box. She stared at the user-unfriendly mishmash of windows on the computer in horror.

"Five,"

She picked a box and clicked it. Nothing happened. She clicked again, then realized it was greyed out. "F-!"

"Four," the loudspeaker drowned her out.

More panicked than before, she smacked in command-tab to cycle through applications. Nothing happened, as she realized the computer was running Windows. She bit her tongue, hard.

"Three," the automated sequence informed, helpfully.

A window that had been hidden behind the others leaped to the front as she tried variations on tab plus a key. This one looked like a big text status readout with an input box at the bottom. The window title labeled it "SSEN." Yes!

"Two,"

She started frantically typing the code. With the first S, the box became red. That was good, right? She wasn't sure. The instructions had some blood spray on them; one of the letters was obscured. G or Q?

"One,"

G, she guessed, tapping out the code. "SIGSEV"

"Ignition,"

As she slammed home the return key, a wall of light and sound came barrelling in from the pad. Anne was bowled over immediately, her every bone rattling like the ground in an earthquake. Then, as suddenly as the wall of sound and heat had come, it left again.

She had done it.

Taking a few moments to lie on the ground, Anne let out a soundless groan. Everything hurt.

"-ch aborted. Warning: Launch aborted. Warning: launch aborted. Warning:"

As her hearing slowly returned, she almost wished it hadn't. The repeating drone of the launch abort warning grated at her frayed nerves. She struggled to a sitting position, looking in the direction of the rocket.

A niggling voice in her mind told her she hadn't stopped anything, that the silver Symbiote would just race to where she lay, kill her, restart the sequence, and launch anyway.

Her adrenaline restarting, Anne pushed herself to her feet through the pain. She could run, hide from the Symbiote, stop the launch again. That would work. It had to. And the frequency generator! She could stop the Symbiote using-

The desk she was leaning on for support suddenly became blinding bright, as if someone outside had just switched on the setting sun. Anne had barely a moment to turn her head toward the launchpad and see the fireball engulf it before the overpressure wave slammed into her.

She flew. A fraction of a second later, she slammed into the backrest of a rolling chair, sending both it and herself skittering across the wrecked room. A wheel of her chair caught on a binder left on the floor by a fleeing scientist, stopping the chair dead. Anne did not stop, tumbling out of the chair and over another two meters of ground. Something snapped.

She finally came to rest with one of the mission control desks between her and the fireball. The world was pain and, try as she might to rise and convince herself of the silver Symbiote's destruction, she couldn't find it in herself to move.

Battered and exhausted, Anne succumbed to the darkness encroaching on her vision.

-Rocketwoman-

Anne opened her eyes to a blur of white and grey. Her mind jumping immediately to the silver Symbiote, she bucked, attempting to escape. Other than splitting pain in her right shoulder, her efforts accomplished nothing - not even a sound.

She blinked, hard, but her eyes refused to focus even as the white began to move. Something darker white came into view, maybe the ceiling? She had been in some sort of pod.

A human-shaped blob leaned down over her, pink with a black scalp and eyes as dark as night. Anne struggled as she felt it pressing down on her shoulders, saw its mouth working. Whatever Symbiote this was, it has so many teeth that they appeared like a solid wall in Anne's frazzled state.

Another Symbiote came into view, this one a deep chocolate brown with the same black eyes. Something flashed in what she could only assume was its clawed hand. She felt a prick against her neck. She screamed, but no sound came from her lips that she could hear.

She wouldn't go out like this.

She wouldn't _fucking_ go out like this.

With all of her dwindling strength, Anne hurled her left fist at the pink Symbiote, right where the nose would be on a human. She connected with a sickening crack that she felt through her bones, rather than heard. The pink Symbiote stumbled away, actually falling back from her assault. Feeling empowered, she brought her fist back around toward the chocolate brown one.

She missed, her arm falling limp over the side of whatever table she was on. She cried out as the momentum caused a twinge in her right shoulder, then again as she realized she was done for. That was it. Whatever they'd done to her, she had nothing left to fight it with.

As darkness filled her vision again, she closed her eyes and cried.

-Rocketwoman-

Anne awoke to the feeling of puffy comfort she had really only half expected heaven to have. Despite that, she still felt like a pile of bricks was weighing down every inch of her body. It took her almost a minute of struggling to open even her lead-lined eyelids.

Heaven was a blurry hospital room. A preposterously large vase of flowers sat at the foot of the bed, staring her in the face with their fuzzy majesty. Anne stared back at them, almost missing the flicker of motion at the door indicating someone had just stepped out.

"... What…?" Anne managed to say. Her voice sounded distant, like someone talking from the far end of a long tunnel.

The motion at the door returned, resolving after a moment into pink blob approaching her. Remembering the Symbiotes that had killed her, Anne flinched away, finding to her surprise that it no longer hurt as much to move her shoulder.

"Hey, hey, don't move too much," the blob said. He, too, sounded indistinct and far away.

Anne stared at it in incomprehension.

It came closer, resolving a little more. "How are you feeling?"

Anne blinked as she realized she was staring into the face of Eddie Brock. Except, Eddie had died on that launchpad. He couldn't be here. He couldn't be alive. So she must be…

"You had everyone pretty worried for a bit there."

"Drake's symbiote-" Anne croaked.

A look crossed Eddie's face, one Anne couldn't make out in her current state. "No. They're… they're dealt with."

"But who…" Anne shook her head, weakly. If the Symbiotes hadn't won, who had killed her? Who had she punched?

"Who did you punch, right out of the MRI machine? That was Dan."

Anne coughed, spluttering. "Dan?!" Given that crack, she must have-

"You actually broke his nose with that one. Not bad for somebody with 60% coverage 3rd-degree burns."

Closing her eyes, Anne tried to put the facts together. "I'm… not… dead," she asked, so softly she almost couldn't hear it.

"Anne!" Another blob appeared at the door, white and pink and looking exactly like the one she'd punched.

Anne winced. As Dan approached, even she could make out the medical tape on his nose. "Sorry…" she mumbled.

Dan pushed past Eddie, diving right in for a hug. She felt his breath on her shoulder like he was mumbling something, but she couldn't make out a thing he said. After a moment, he pulled back.

The conversation stalled for an awkward second. Evidently, Dan had been expecting a reply from Anne to his mumbling, at least, he indicated so with a throat clearing.

"How long…?" Anne asked.

"About three months of medically induced coma," Dan filled in. "We tried waking you up here and there, but everything seemed to terrify you. I made the decision to keep you under until your brain accepted the cochlear implants."

Cochlear implants? Anne knew that fancy medical speak - it's a replacement inner ear, for deaf people. But she wasn't… or hadn't been…

"We've also been doing skin grafts to help you recover from the burns. After the gruesome scene at the Life Foundation…" Dan gave a sidelong glance at Eddie so pointed, even her blurry vision couldn't miss it. "... there was enough donor material that the waiting list vanished."

Anne took a few moments to process all of the information. "And the Symbiotes?"

Dan froze, staring at Anne. "Did you just say Symbiote _s_? Plural? You mean that parasite we pulled out of Eddie-"

"Gone," Eddie cut him off. "Riot - that silver one - burnt up in the rocket. Venom burnt up when he set the rocket explosion in motion. There was one dead in the Life Foundation lab before I even found Venom and-"

Dan turned to Eddie with a look of incredulous horror. Anne, meanwhile, snapped her attention to motion near the door. Her eyes were still unable to focus at distance, but she could make out a number of blue and grey blobs piling through. "Mr. Brock, Dr. Dan, cease and desist corrupting the witness' story!" the first one said, the first person Anne had heard reach regular speaking volume.

"Excuse me?" Dan asked, "I wasn't-"

Eddie took him by the shoulder. "They're cops, we're not. C'mon, let's get out of their way."

"But-" Dan glanced longingly at Anne even as Eddie guided him toward the door, through the press of what Anne guessed were police officers.

"You can reunite with her after we get her side of the story, Doctor," the lead investigator said, ushering Dan past.

At the door, Eddie gave her a pointed glance, then stepped out. Anne wished she had any idea what the glance was supposed to mean.

The lead investigator sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he stepped up to Anne's beside. She could barely make out him mumbling, "First responding to reports of that monster again, now Ms. Rocketwoman woke up three months early."

Anne ignored the comment, unsure if she had heard correctly, and more focused on her own defense. "I will... not answer any questions... until... I have spoken to my lawyer."

The detective glared at her. "Ma'am, you _are_ a lawyer."

"Former… prosecuting... attorney." Anne coughed. Her voice was not ready for this much talking. "Wrong… field. Need… to call… a colleague."

Giving her a look that was half annoyed, half pitying, the officer handed her a flip phone. She fumbled with it, barely able to read the keys. Before hitting call, she reactivated her bitch glare and turned to the detective. "Client… attorney... confi… denti… ality." She took a deep breath, trying to reach regular speaking volume "Out."

Grudgingly, the detective and his men filed out of the room.

-Rocketwoman-

 **A/N:**

 **Not over yet! Since I turned up the realism a notch on the rocket, I've found a couple more ways I'd like the world to respond to Eddie and Venom's escapades. There are also a few background explanations that need to be made about that hospital visit. So expect maybe one or two more chapters here!**

 **Chapter name:**

 **Merlot is a dark blue-colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle, the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color of the grape.**

 **I selected this name because it looks a lot like blood and because I injured a bunch of characters in this chapter. Cheers!**


	2. Chapter 2: Prosecco

Chapter 2: Prosecco

-Rocketwoman-

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with Venom. Please don't sue me, Sony!

Notice: "Jacob Brimmson", "Ron Delaney", and all other characters or brands introduced in this chapter are entirely fictional, original concepts created by myself. Any similarity to existing persons, real or fictional, is entirely coincidental. I hereby release all ownership of these fictional characters to the rights holder of the "Venom" movie and related franchises, so as to avoid the appearance of claiming any ownership over this story. Please don't sue me.

-Rocketwoman-

Working for the California District Attorney, Jacob Brimmson had learned the value of long work nights and of powering through reams of evidence documents. He had learned this value through trial and error, cases won and lost by a few words on a page. Having learned this lesson, Jacob now swore by days and weeks of immersion in the material of important cases, late night sprints through piles of material.

Though his strategy had brought him great success in recent days, enough so that some colleagues began to pick up his strategies, he still hated it. God how he missed the open-and-shut cases of his early career. God how he wished to go downstairs, hop in his car, and escape home to the warm embrace of sleep.

But no. Here he was, at two in the morning on a Friday, on a material sprint that would surely be a dead end: what happened to the Life Foundation special ops team that brought in Eddie Brock?

Logs from the Life Foundation showed the team swiping keycards at the facility with Eddie Brock at 02:16 - just under an hour and forty minutes from Brock's capture at the hospital. The drive should have been forty minutes total, said Maps4You dot com, except traffic on the night of the events was still a mess from the Symbiote's earlier rampages.

Twenty-two minutes later, motion sensors installed near Eddie's prior escape route began triggering. At least two people took that path from the labs out to the nearby woods, at a pace slower than walking. Camera footage of the hole in the fence during this time was lost - according to the Life Foundation - due to system damage from the rocket explosion.

And then… a hiker trying to get an up-close glimpse of the Life Foundation's pad found the spec ops team's corpses, two days later. All three were armed with lethal firearms, safeties off, yet not a single shot had been fired.

Causes of death varied, but we're all extremely gruesome. Probably the least painful way to go was the man who had his neck turned 180. Number two was the guy who had his head bitten off. Not torn, _bitten_ , as if by a rabid bear. And most painful, number three, with stab wounds through the larynx, trachea, and both lungs, who drowned in his own blood.

Blood splatter placed the location of the team's deaths at the same place the bodies were found.

The more Jacob thought about this setup, the less sense it made. The motion sensors registered no further activity on that access route until the rocket explosion wiped out logs. Staff movements, as registered by ID card, didn't raise any red flags with the system. For some reason, this team had left, died (likely slaughtered by a symbiote,) and yet nobody else noticed. No additional teams were being assembled, nothing. Eddie Brock, simultaneously, had ended up not-inside and re-infected by his Symbiote.

Jacob knew he was missing something, something big, and so he had spent the past few days obsessing over this relatively minor thread in the case. What had killed them? Why were they out there? Eddie was under the team's watchful eye. The Life Foundation claimed the other three Symbiote samples were dead at the time. So if it was the fourth, how did it get from downtown San Francisco all the way to the Life Foundation? And if not Eddie, what host could it have used?

"Hey-"

Jacob jerked away from his desk, preparing to defend himself from the sudden intruder on his cubicle. It was only after sending the printout of Life Foundation security logs to the floor that he realized the voice belonged to an intern.

"Jesus, see many ghosts around here?" the intern, Jacob thought his name was Ron, quipped.

Rubbing his eyes, Jacob tried to put on a less tired demeanor. "Only unsolved cases. What are you doing here so late?"

Ron looked put off by the question. "You asked me to try to track the loose symbiote's motion through the hospital? Something like two days ago? 'Fresh pair of eyes' ringing any bells?"

Jacob did vaguely remember telling someone to do that. "Yeah. Right." He'd almost half returned to his work before his brain caught up with the hospital's location in the case. "Wait, did you say you had something?"

"No," Ron rolled his eyes, "I didn't say that-"

Doing his best to hide his scowl from Ron, Jacob bent down from his chair to begin collecting the dropped stacks of security log data.

"- but I do. Oh boy, do I."

Log printouts forgotten, Jacob sat upright. "What did you find?"

Under a minute later, Jacob leaned over Ron's shoulder as the intern scrubbed through hours of security camera footage in Ron's (much smaller) cubicle.

Ron jumped right into talking. "So I was looking through the hospital footage, right? This is the 17th, just after they use the MRI machine to knock Venom out of Brock-"

Jacob tsked. "You're not seriously calling the extraterrestrial parasite by the name a washed-up reporter gave it, are you?"

"Judge me all you want, man." Ron shrugged. "'Venom' sounds a helluva lot better than writing 'the black one' in all my reports. Welcome to 2019!"

Frowning at Ron's cavalier attitude toward workplace racism, Jacob motioned for him to continue.

"Right, so, MRI machine happens about now, then Eddie-" As Ron spoke, Eddie Brock slammed open the door on screen, marching down the hallway toward the camera like a man on a mission. "Yep. Heads for the elevator just behind this camera."

"But they just pulled the Symbiote out of Eddie," Jacob reminded him, unable to keep frustration from bleeding into his voice.

"Hey, chill your tiddlie widdlies, okay? We don't care about Eddie here." Ron pointed at the MRI room door swinging shut behind Eddie. "So Ms. Weying and her fiance are arguing in there, right?"

Jacob nodded. He'd looked at that footage a few times himself, trying to figure out where the Symbiote went after crawling up the wall.

"So Weying realizes Brock is serious about just leaving Venom and rushes out to the hallway and-"

On screen, Anne Weying stopped dead in the middle of the hallway.

"Bang! She spots something." Ron made finger guns at the screen to emphasize his point.

Jacob scowled. "The camera footage from the elevator shows Eddie being tased at the elevator door almost exactly now."

"Ah!" Ron wagged a finger. "Eddie got tased and dragged into the elevator twenty seconds before Ms. Weying left the MRI room. _And_ the elevators are _around a corner_. Notice nobody at reception is panicking about someone getting tased."

Reorganizing his thoughts, Jacob again got the feeling he was missing some glaring connection. "Then… she's staring at…?"

Ron tapped the paused video back by two frames, causing a nurse to take a half step backward and reveal an orange blob on the hospital floor. "That dog."

The exhausted glower Jacob had been fighting returned immediately. "That's an orange speck on this footage. How can you even know it's a dog? And what-"

Deftly retrieving a slip of paper, Ron shoved it under Jacob's nose. "Exemption of standard hospital policy against pets in patient rooms. Allowance for one bright orange shorthair named Gemini, room 201." Ron pointed again at the screen, just to the dog's left. "That's room 201."

Jacob slapped the slip of paper out of his face. "What the hell is this supposed to do with-"

"Picture this scene," Ron interrupted, "You're having the worst night of your life. You have literally just watched your ex-fiance hulk out into an alien space monster and murder armed SWAT officers. You get him to a hospital, free him of the alien, and then he storms off."

Ron resumed the footage. Onscreen, Anne made a beeline for the dog, scooping it up and disappearing into 201. She exited seconds later and made another beeline for the elevator.

He paused the video again. "I don't know about you, but returning comfort dogs to little old ladies is pretty low on my to-do list."

Jacob gave the ceiling an exhasperated glance. "So she's a nice person! So what?"

Ron tapped a few keys, reversing the footage to the moment she picked up the dog. "So… I don't remember little old ladies' dogs having color-changing fur." He pointed to the pixels where Anne's arm met the blob of the dog.

"It's her shadow," Jacob dismissed. Despite himself, he had the odd feeling of puzzle pieces shifting into place.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, but dogs don't tend to change opinions on people literally overnight." Ron opened another window, showing sunlight streaming through the windows into the hospital rooms.

Onscreen, Anne, Eddie, and Dan were walking down the hall in a clump. As they passed room 201, a little old lady walked out and began addressing them. Even the grainy security audio was able to pick up the dog barking loudly at Anne's group.

"That was earlier. And when Anne swoops in and scoops Gemini up on the 17th?" Ron played the nighttime footage again. Clearly audible were the hums, squeaks, and beeps of an active hospital. Conspicuously absent was any sound made by a dog.

Jacob felt his stomach tie itself in knots as his frustration turned to excited confusion. "But… the dog could've been reacting to anyone in the group. Maybe it didn't like Dan's soap. Hell, Eddie was still infected then, right? Maybe it smelled the Symbiote on him."

Ron rolled his eyes again. "Jesus Christ. Could you quit trying to shoot down everything and let me get to the point?"

Jacob's glower returned. "If you could prove any of your points before moving on-"

Ignoring Jacob, Ron snatched up another sheet of paper and began to read in a very official tone. "From the official statement by Anne Weying:"

"Between myself and Dan, I was the first to notice that Venom had escaped the MRI scan room. I immediately left the MRI control room, intending to find Eddie and ensure that Venom had not re-bonded to him. Though I searched the hospital grounds, I could find no sign of him. After some deliberation, I realized the Life Foundation was likely still attempting to capture Eddie, making the assumption he was still in possession of Venom. Continuing my search for Eddie, I traveled to the Life Foundation facility at-"

Ron put the statement back on his desk. "No mention of the dog, clear mention she searched the area thoroughly."

Jacob leveled a glare at Ron over crossed arms. "If I returned dogs to little old ladies that quickly, I'd probably forget about it too."

"For fuck's-" Ron fidgeted, gesturing at his screen. "She didn't search the place!"

Jacob's eyebrows shot up. "She didn't?"

"No! I thought- Damnit. I forgot to show you..." Ron resumed the footage of Anne, having just returned the dog. "Dog back, beeline to elevator…" He opened a folder in another window, scrolling through gigabytes of files. "Here. Into the elevator…"

Jacob uncrossed his arms. He wasn't ready to drop the skepticism yet, unless…

"Out on the first floor. And then-" He opened a view onto a hallway. "Damnit! Why the hell is this camera labeled lobby. There!"

Jacob waited, looking at the footage of the hospital lobby containing no Anne Weying.

"Fuck this software…" Ron pressed a few keys. "There!"

Anne Weying stepped out of the elevator, didn't even glance around the lobby, and strolled right out the front door.

Ron gesticulated at the screen. "Not even a second's pause to look. She spent more time returning that _dog_ than she spent 'looking'! And then," he switched to an exterior camera, "Off she goes!"

Jacob felt a jolt of exhilaration as the puzzle piece he'd been missing was suddenly filled. "Did she ever come back in?"

"Oh, right," Ron deadpanned, "She turned right around and did a sweep of the hospital that would've made the goddamn US Army proud." He jabbed at the screen. "No, she didn't fucking turn around. That's it! Next time we've got camera footage of her at the hospital, she's being wheeled in on a stretcher!"

Jacob stood up. The missing piece: how the Symbiote got from the hospital to the Life Foundation. How that special ops team ended up dead - even why they were out there in the first place. And finally, how it got back to Brock so that he and it could blow up that rocket.

Anne Weying picked up the Symbiote.

And if the camera footage was any indication, she had done so _on purpose_.

"I need to make a call," Jacob said, starting toward his cubicle.

"No shit!" Ron called after him.

-Rocketwoman-

Five hours saw Jacob in contact with the judge overseeing the case. Six got him a warrant for Anne's cell phone's tower pings on the night of the _events_. In his no-sleep state, it took him until eight hours in to realize she'd left her phone at the hospital when she ran off to return the dog.

By the twelfth hour post-discovery, he'd worked his way halfway from the hospital to Pier 39, asking store managers and building owners for exterior video footage of the night of October 17th, 2018. Few kept video the whole three months back, but by the fourteenth hour Jacob caught a break: clear footage of Anne headed on a direct line from the hospital to the coast, parallel to highway 101 north.

And so, fifteen hours later, Jacob found himself in the back of a dingy, cigarette-smoke-tainted electronics store. He shared the abysmally tiny elbow room with one unusually overweight police detective and one, almost equally portly store owner (who, much to Jacob's displeasure, was also the source of the cigarette smell.)

On a CRT that fizzled like it had been built last century, they reviewed an actual VHS tape the store owner "thought" was from the 17th. Apparently, the store owner's nephew had decided on a whim to watch a security tape instead of just shelving it and had run into whatever they were about to see.

"I was going to put this footage on MyTube, you know?" the store owner said around his cigarette. "I was thinking, that's really cool. That should go on MyTube and get lots of likes, yeah? But funny story: it's VHS. My whole security system goes to VHS. And my VHS reader? That here only outputs in RCA. So I thought, RCA capture card, no big deal. But did you know they don't make those anymore? Yeah. Ever since corpo-"

"Could you please just get to the footage?" Jacob snapped.

"Relax man," the store owner said. "Do you want the footage to still be there when we get there? You don't rush VHS unless you want to break it - Not the rewritable stuff."

Jacob looked to the police detective for some support.

The detective grunted. "I remember my dad had a shelf of 'em. Tore up my favorite one 'cause I watched it one too many times."

Groaning, Jacob rested his head against the pegboard wall.

"Wait, wait, here we go!" the store owner said. "There's the blonde lady!"

At "blonde," Jacob's eyes snapped open.

Indeed, in one of the screen's four split frames, a blonde lady wearing the same clothes Anne had been wearing at the hospital was strolling down the street, having a conversation with her left shoulder.

With the grainy footage and the woman's hair obscuring her face, Jacob couldn't get a firm ID.

"Well damn," the detective commented, "looks just like rocketwoman."

"Do you have audio?" Jacob asked the store owner.

"Nah." The store owner shrugged. "I don't need audio to show a kid shoplifting, yeah? Wish I did for this though."

The woman walked out of the frame. After a moment, she appeared in another frame looking out at the intersection in front of the shop.

"Here… we… go!" The store owner gestured at the screen like a sports commentator, elbowing Jacob in the process.

Having reviewed body camera footage from the SWAT officers mauled by a Symbiote, Jacob was prepared for this transformation.

The detective, apparently, was not. "Jesus Christ in heaven!" He gagged, and Jacob quietly prayed he'd keep his lunch down.

On the store owner's cue, the woman dropped to all fours and bolted across the street. Black tendrils engulfed her as she ran. By the time she was leaping over the far sidewalk and into the harbor, she was fully manifesting a Symbiote form.

"Really cool, yeah? So many likes on MyTube, I think. Need to get it there," the store owner commented. "Wish I had more footage though. In water, gone. Not that much, you know?"

As the store owner had said, after landing in the water, there was no further sign of the Symbiote-infected Anne on the tape.

Luckily, that was all the footage Jacob needed.

-Rocketwoman-

 **A/N:**

 **Sorry for the chapter of OC content, but I didn't want anything coming out of left field like in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Onward to the courtroom!**

 **Chapter Name:**

 **Prosecco is an Italian white wine. Prosecco controlled designation of origin can be spumante, frizzante, or tranquillo. It is made from Glera grapes, formerly known also as Prosecco, but other grape varieties may be included.**

 **I selected this name because it sounds somewhat like "Prosecute," because this chapter is all about a prosecutor. Cheers!**


	3. Chapter 3: Chardonnay

Chapter 3: Chardonnay

-Rocketwoman-

Disclaimer: "Venom", the 2018 movie and any associated characters, brands, franches, and rights belong to Sony Entertainment. Please don't sue me!

Notice: I think I made up some new characters this chapter? They're still fictional. Please don't sue me!

-Rocketwoman-

 **One day later…**

The loud, insistent knocking on Anne's door came with little warning. What spurred her to respond was that the knocking kept coming. That wasn't the knocking of some door-to-door salesman.

As she descended the staircase, she heard someone shout through the door. "Ms. Weying? Are you home right now?"

Anne formed her face into a scowl. "Sorry, no press!" she shouted back. Somewhat ironic, given Eddie's frequent visits, although now he was limited to the written word.

"Ma'am, This is the SFPD."

Trepidation twisting in her gut, Anne checked that the chain was still in place, then opened the door to peek.

"Ms. Weying?" Outside the door was, indeed, an SFPD officer. Or two. Or five. Just through the small crack she'd opened, she thought she could make out at least seven officers around her front door and across the street. All but the one at her door had a hand on their holsters.

"Excuse me, what is this?" Anne asked through the door.

"Are you Ms. Anne Weying?" The officer at her door shifted uncomfortably while he asked. Why was he acting like he'd picked the short straw?

"I am," Anne confirmed, cautiously.

"Could you please step outside, ma'am?"

Closing the door to unlatch the chain, Anne re-opened it a little wider. She did not step outside. "Could you first tell me what's going on?"

The officer cleared his throat, glancing at her shoes. "Under the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You-"

Anne couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. "Skip the Miranda rights. I worked for the SF DA. I know what you were going to tell me." She took a breath, trying to compose herself before continuing. "On what grounds are you bringing me in?"

"To confirm, you understand your rights as laid out by the fifth and sixth amendments to the US Constitution?" The officer appeared to be straining his shoulders with how tightly his hands were clasped behind his back.

Anne huffed through her nose. He was just doing his legal duty, obviously, but that didn't make the apprehension any more manageable for her. "I understand. On what grounds are you making this arrest, officer?"

The officer swallowed. "The office of the San Francisco district attorney of California has leveled against you three counts murder in the second degree, and convinced a judge to issue a warrant for your arrest."

Anne's head spun. _She_ was being charged? How? Who? Well- she likely knew who. The three people in the forest, who had held Eddie at gunpoint. But how could they know? More importantly, how would they make this charge stick? She could make the same arguments Eddie made on his case - the Symbiote controlled her. She couldn't stop it. Alien biology this, alien biology that.

Except,

"Do you understand ma'am?" the officer asked.

"I- I do." Anne presented her hands to the officer. "I'll need to speak to my lawyer when we reach the station."

"Of course ma'am." The officer slowly drew out a pair of cuffs.

Anne mentally scoffed at the officer's caution. He was acting like she was going to go crazy at any moment. Then she paused to consider his side - he had no way to know she didn't have a Symbiote. A crux of Eddie's defense case had been that Venom was destroyed by the rocket explosion, but from the side of the courts that was just another unverifiable claim.

The officer closed her door behind her. Without protest, Anne let herself be led out to his police cruiser. She hoped to God the tabloid reporter who'd been hounding her doorstep had been on a lunch break for this.

-Rocketwoman-

 **Rocketwoman charged for second-degree murder! -** **Read more**

 **Ex-fiance of Brockinator, Anne Weying, arrested! -** **Read more**

-Rocketwoman-

Anne held her head in her hands, waiting for Sophia to get back from talking to the detectives outside.

Sophia was a defense attorney - a damn good one, good enough that she gave Anne more than enough tough cases back in her days at the DA. Her fees were remortgage-the-house level, but as a friend of Anne's, she'd halved that for defending Eddie's broke behind.

Anne considered herself lucky to have such a good friend. As soon as she had called Sophia and informed her whose head was now on the chopping block, Sophia had come right over - pro bono.

Of course, she had admitted right away that she couldn't _stay_ pro bono, but she'd "work with Annie on a financing plan." Anne was not looking forward to that conversation with Dan.

Interrupting her thoughts, the police interrogation room door opened. "'Kay," Sophia said, shutting the door. "Cameras are off. We can talk freely."

Anne leaned back in the ungodly uncomfortable chair. "Thanks, Sophia."

"Yeah yeah, save it." Sophia sat opposite her, in the interrogation room's rolling chair. "Truth, whole truth, that jazz. Hit me with the real thing - not the crap we fed to Eddie's trial."

Anne began tracing a crack in the room's lone table with her eyes. "So… the Life Foundation. I… might have already found Eddie before the rocket… happened."

"Was more looking for the part of the story I couldn't guess," Sophia said. "Let me try to piece it together: you separate Ed and Ven at the hospital. Ed runs off, gets his ass grabbed by goons. Two hours later, supposedly, Ven shows up on his lonesome and, supposedly, Ed and Ven get the drop on those goons and they never get off a shot." Sophia leaned forward. "But the way I'm guessing, Venom couldn't make 'cross the Golden Gate by himself."

Anne winced. "After we lost Venom in the MRI room, I stepped out into the hallway - as I said in my statement, to make sure Venom hadn't grabbed Eddie. In the hallway…" Anne pointed at the floor. "There was this dog, staring at me. And I knew, somehow: that's Venom."

Sophia produced a notebook, jotting something down. "Yeah, go on."

"And then… I don't know what I was thinking. But I picked up the dog."

Sophia's scribbles stopped. "You… picked up the infected dog."

"It sounds terrible _now_. But… I think I was trying to protect the hospital? Make myself the next host, get Venom away from-"

"Forget your thought process." Sophia waved away the line of thought. "Memories like that are guesses anyway. Facts. What next?"

"I put the dog back in its room and headed directly out of the hospital. No words from Venom the whole way."

"No search for Eddie?" Sophia asked, then shook her head. "Of course not. You didn't want to run into Dan."

Anne flinched but nodded. "I had left my purse in the MRI room, so no car keys."

Sophia nodded.

"Out on the street, I turned north without thinking. It took a few blocks for Venom to finally start talking rather than nudging me around."

Sophia tapped her pencil on her notebook. "Were you displaying any symptoms at all?"

Anne grimaced. "Under the clothes. He was… practicing. Rearranging some things. I'd… rather not think about it."

"So nobody could have seen you while you were infected?" Sophia's pencil went to her lower lip.

"Plenty of people saw me. None of them saw Venom." Anne paused. "I think… I think he saw in my head how people reacted to him - police and bystanders - and was starting to figure out that drawing less attention saves him a lot of effort."

"That can't be all of it it, though." Sophia waggled the pencil at her. Anne found herself unconsciously following it with her eyes. "There's no way you walked to the Life Foundation in two hours. That's gotta be a four-hour trip, with jogging."

Anne's eyes shot back to the crack in the table, and she clenched her fists in her lap. "When I… we… reached the bay a block or two west of Pier 39, he… took over and launched us into the bay. Turns out he can swim forty, maybe fifty miles per hour."

In the corner of her vision, Anne saw Sophia blink. "That… would do it. With the walk from the hospital, yeah. What next?"

"Venom knew exactly where Eddie was. I don't know how. We climbed ashore on the northern peninsula, crossed under highway 1, then raced into the forest above the Life Foundation."

Sophia noted that down. "Mhmm."

"When we-" Anne bit her tongue. She didn't want to think of this part as involving her. "When Venom got to where Eddie was, Eddie was on his knees, three men with guns aiming at him. It looked like an execution."

Sophia put down the pencil and fixed Anne with a neutral, I'm-not-judging-you gaze.

Anne gnawed on her lip. "Venom… told me we- he… could save Eddie."

"And…?" Sophia gestured for her to continue.

Anne squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore images of the memory even as she recited it. "We grabbed the guy furthest back. Before he could make a sound our hands turned into claws and we had just punctured him, all over - especially the throat. The second, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. We grabbed his chest, grabbed his head, and twisted. The third hadn't noticed the other two go, was about to pull the trigger on Eddie."

Anne peeked out. As far as she could tell, Sophia had kept up an impassive, non-judgmental look throughout the description.

Knowing Sophia was putting on the face for her, Anne felt even more sickened by the whole thing. "I grabbed his shoulder, spun him around, and we-" Anne's breath hitched. She could still remember the taste, the texture, the feeling of separating the vertebrae in his spine. And Venom had been anticipating it, had been expecting this particular man to show up again. All of it made Anne so sick, especially how much she had _enjoyed_ -

"Venom bit his head off," Sophia corrected.

Anne nodded, wordlessly.

"And that's when the Symbiote returned to Eddie?"

"Yes," Anne mumbled. That moment had been all Venom, all some kind of alien feeling she couldn't process.

"Did they bring you any closer to the Life Foundation after that? Carry you there?"

Anne shook her head. "I had to follow the trail they left through the forest."

"And the bodies - you left them where they lay?"

Anne cringed. "Yes," she said, truthfully, even as the knot in her gut twisted into a big ball. Though it disgusted her, she hadn't _wanted_ to leave the bodies. The _taste_ was so _fresh_ -

"Anne," Sophia snapped.

Flinching, Anne glanced at Sophia.

"Truth, whole truth."

"I didn't touch the bodies," Anne repeated, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort. "But… I… the taste Venom had-"

"Nope!" Sophia interrupted, "Maybe not all the truth. For that, I'd recommend psychological help. Facts. You got to LF. Anything not in your statement from Eddie's case?"

"Obviously I came in from the forest," Anne pointed out, still not meeting Sophia's gaze. "People were running, some screaming, from the building. I ran the other way, trying to find the source of the danger. I was worried it would be Eddie…"

"Exactly as in the statement, then," Sophia confirmed.

Anne nodded.

"Alright." Sophia closed her notebook. "Thanks to Brock's case and the DA's case-building against LF, evidence gathering should be done at this point. I'll let you know when I get the Discovery. As for your defense strategy…"

Anne finally managed to look at Sophia, who was putting away the notebook.

Sophia pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look. The conflict with your previous statement doesn't look good. In fact, it looks really, really bad."

Finding the crack in the table suddenly extremely interesting again, Anne looked away.

"Here's the plan." Sophia held up two fingers. "From the moment you exit the MRI room," she waggled her left finger, "to the moment you step out of the forest," she waggled her right finger, "you don't remember a single thing differing from your statement." Sophia brought the two fingers together.

"Wh-" Anne spluttered. "That's-"

"Shh!" Sophia half stood up, planting her hands on the table. "No shit it's lying under oath. It's also the only way you get out without a charge for, oh guess what, lying on your official statement - which was _also under oath_."

Cowed, Anne held her tongue.

"Now," Sophia sat back down. "Let's unfuck this fucked up situation. I'm sure the press is making stuff up out the whazoo right now, so we need to talk PR."

-Rocketwoman-

 **The Venom runs thicker: Former DA Anne Weying arrested in connection with Symbiote investigation -** **Read more**

 **Remember Brock? His girlfriend might be in on it too -** **Read more**

" **It's a whole family of supers!" Did Anne Weying play host to Venom? Sources in the DA's... -** **Read more**

" **How the fuck did you get in?!" Anne Weying's unfriendly response to reporters in pretrial holding -** **Read more**

-Rocketwoman-

 **Four days later...**

"That was not what I meant by PR," Sophia said, the moment the prison guard had closed the door.

Anne sat on the cell's cot, tucked up into a corner with her knees at her chest. "You try doing PR from pretrial holding."

"Not many reporters have that kind of access to the prison system," Sophia pointed out. "You-"

"Not many reporters have been hounding me for _months_." Anne gave a very unladylike snort. "Especially not ones who publish in-"

"Chill." Sophia produced her notebook. "I've talked with Eddie, and he's talked with some old friends. We might be able to get you a real interview, where you'll play the confused and assaulted businesswoman trope."

Anne glowered at the cell wall. "Inside or out?"

"Inside."

Anne swore. "And why couldn't we post bail, again?"

"Because the DA convinced the judge you're a flight risk, even though we both know that's bullshit." Sophia cocked a glare at Anne. "Can you focus?"

"Not really, no," Anne said to the wall. "I had a job interview scheduled for yesterday. Big nonprofit pro bono law firm. And then this asshole DA decides to-"

"Anne." Sophia patted the air. "Chill."

Anne grunted discontent toward that course of action.

"Pre-trial motions start in half a week. DA's cut down the evidence he's pulling in to just the stuff on you, so I doubt we'll be able to get anything thrown out. I'll do what I can to get you out of holding and back into your house, but I think the judge bought the flight risk line hook and sinker."

The legalese washed over Anne. It was familiar and, in literally any other setting, would be greatly comforting. In fact, Anne thought, any setting other than this prison cell would be greatly comforting.

"Hey," Sophia snapped her fingers in front of Anne's face. "Focus. I need your brain to bounce ideas off of as much as I need to tell you this stuff."

"I'm not a defense lawyer," Anne reminded her half-heartedly.

"You are _a_ lawyer. That's more than I can say for most of my clients."

Anne huffed.

"So, I think I've got this DA's case figured out. By the evidence, I think he's trying to use People v. Morse 1992 precedent to charge you. In the Morse case, he had a bomb rather than an alien space organism, but the logic of ignoring the threat to others applies. So if you stick to the story and just act terrified if the contradiction comes up…"

Anne's attention drifted back to the wall. She wondered what Dan was doing out there right now. Probably working. That was Dan: either working or charming. No: always charming, often working. That was it.

-Rocketwoman-

 **Sources at SF DA claim to have footage of Anne-Venom. When will it come out? -** **Read more**

 **Innocent? Riiight. Anne Weying refuses plea deal. -** **Read more**

 **Pathogens experts comment on Symbiote spread. Are they still out there? -** **Read more**

 **Data recovery specialists find new footage at Life Foundation: the slash that killed dozens -** **Read more**

 **Carlton Drake, Symbiote himself? New footage raises old questions -** **Read more**

 **Anonymous source claims silver Symbiote called "Riot": fake news to muddy Anne's trial? -** **Read more**

 **Riot Symbiote Planned to Kill Us All! Story of the Comet -** **Read more**

 **Don't believe what you read: "Riot" source may be Brock? -** **Read more**

 **Hurricane Eddie: Dozens of anonymous tips may have come from former Symbiote host -** **Read more**

-Rocketwoman-

"... the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," Anne repeated.

Here she was, on the witness stand in front of a room full of people, preparing to lie.

What the hell was she doing?

She took a steadying breath.

"Ms. Weying," the prosecutor, Jacob, stood from his desk. "As stated in the opening statements, the prosecution has found a discrepancy between your official statement and the evidence that has thus far been collected by the San Francisco Police Department. Your representation, in her opening statements, said you stand by that statement as an accurate account of events as you experienced them. Do you stand by that statement?"

"I do," Anne lied.

"I see. Ms. Weying, have you, at any point, come into physical contact with the black-colored Life Foundation Symbiote, commonly referred to by the media as 'Venom'?"

"I have," Anne said, truthfully, "repeatedly."

Jacob's eyebrows rose. "When?"

Anne wondered if the prosecutor was feigning his surprise. It seemed likely. "First, during the widely reported event of Eddie Brock - infected - stumbling into a downtown restaurant. Mr. Brock fell against my side while attempting to hand me his smartphone. Second, again on the-"

"Apologies Ms. Weying," Jacob interrupted, "Please list only events occurring after you witnessed Mr. Brock assault the SWAT team at-"

" _Venom_ assaulted the SWAT team." Anne leaned forward in her chair. "Eddie would not have-"

The judge banged his gavel. "Ms. Weying! You are out of turn." Turning to the prosecutor, the judge went on. "Mr. Brimmson, please refer to actions taken by Symbiote-infected hosts as actions taken by the Symbiote, in accordance with People v. Brock, 2019."

Anne could see the prosecutor's jaw tighten as he grit his teeth. That was a good sign.

"Ms. Weying," Jacob ground out, "On what occasions have you come into physical contact with the Symbiote Venom since witnessing _its_ attack on a SWAT unit?"

"Once for a few seconds while helping Eddie into my car-"

"This was immediately after witnessing the attack on the SWAT?"

"Yes."

"Did you have any fear the Symbiote would attack you at that time?"

Anne glanced at Sophia, who was subtly shaking her head. "No. It seemed that-"

"A 'Yes' or 'No' is sufficient, Ms. Weying," Jacob interrupted. "When was your next physical contact?"

"Helping Mr. Brock out of my car at the hospital."

"Continue…" Jacob encouraged.

"Helping Mr. Brock into the elevator and up to the MRI room on the second floor."

"And then…?" Jacob asked.

Anne faked a blank stare. "I had no further physical contact with Venom from that point until it was destroyed by the rocket explosion at the Life Foundation."

Jacob gave no physical indication that he had expected or not expected the response. "Moving on," he reached for another paper, "Ms. Weying, your statement says that you 'traveled to the Life Foundation' after losing track of both Eddie and the Venom, now separate, in the hospital. By what means of transportation did you travel?"

"I do not remember," Anne lied.

Jacob paused. "You don't remember by what means of transportation you crossed San Francisco from the hospital to the Life Foundation facility?"

"Yes," Anne lied again.

"Camera footage from the hospital security records shows you departing on foot." Jacob waved the paper he held as if the physical representation of the evidence would lend it weight. "Maps4You states walking that distance would take around six hours, across the Golden Gate Bridge. Eyewitness accounts at the Life Foundation report you arrived in under two. Can you explain this discrepancy?"

Anne clasped her hands beneath the stand. "I cannot." Before Jacob could continue, she added, "I do remember passing the Life Foundation front gates on foot, at a sprint."

"Ms. Weying…" Jacob set down the paper he held. "Your memory appears to be disturbingly spotty." His tone was pitying.

His tone ticked Anne off. "As my fiance would likely remind you, later that evening I _did_ suffer a traumatic injury, part of which involved a concussion."

Jacob's face remained impassive. "Of course. Returning to the hospital, which you better recall, about how long did you spend looking for Mr. Brock before beginning your travel to the Life Foundation?"

Anne feigned thinking. "Twenty minutes?"

"During that time, did you interact with any other hospital patients?" Jacob asked.

"Not that I recall, no," Anne answered.

Jacob's jaw tightened again. Anne got the feeling that was his tell, the hole in his poker face. "Finally, Ms. Weying, this question I ask in general of your entire life." He paused to plant his hands on his desk. "Have you, at any time or place, been host to any of the Symbiotes brought to earth by the Life Foundation?"

Anne let the question hang, pretending to be in confused silence. "No," she said, putting as much confusion as she could into the single word.

Standing, Jacob crossed his arms. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I direct your attention to evidence item 1209, footage from the exterior cameras of the hospital at which Eddie and Venom were separated, immediately after the separation."

A red-haired intern who looked to be having the time of his life wheeled in an old CRT television on a cart, connected to a computer. He stopped the cart in the middle of the well, facing the jury.

Anne looked to the judge. By the lack of a reaction on his face, this must have been set up in pre-trial. She sent a dirty look toward Sophia, who shrugged.

"Ms. Weying reported that she did not interact with other patients in the hospital during her search for Eddie Brock, after separating Eddie from the Symbiote." Jacob pointed to the screen. "Here is Eddie Brock leaving the frame, having just been separated from Venom by the MRI machine."

The footage continued after Eddie left the frame. Anne saw herself burst from the MRI room and stop dead in the hallway.

"Note, here, Ms. Anne's searches pause almost immediately. Her object of interest?"

Anne scooped up a fluffy orange blob sitting on the floor, then disappeared into another room.

"... Another patient's comfort animal, which she proceeded to return."

Sophia stood up. "Objection, your honor! My patient's memory was disrupted by her injuries later that evening. She must have forgotten this interaction."

"Overruled." The judge waved a hand. "Mr. Brimsson, where are you going with this?"

Jacob ignored the interruption and the judge. "It is the current belief of investigators that, after being separated from Mr. Brock and escaping the MRI scan room, the Symbiote known as Venom proceeded to seek the nearest accessible host." Jacob pointed at the orange blob in Anne's arms onscreen. "Due to the unusual behavior of Ms. Anne and of this comfort animal-"

The intern rewound and replayed the footage. Anne had to keep from wincing as her pause in the corridor became painfully obvious.

"- we currently believe the next host of Venom was that dog and, recognizing the dog as the host, Ms. Anne intentionally picked up this dog so as to be exposed to it."

Schooling her face into the picture of confusion, Anne stared blankly at the screen. Hopefully, the Jury was buying it.

The intern changed to a new screen.

"Moving on, in this footage," Jacob continued, "We can see clearly Ms. Anne Weying departing the hospital. This is approximately two minutes and thirty seconds after Mr. Brock's separation from the Venom Symbiote. According to Ms. Weying's statements, she would not depart for another seventeen minutes."

The intern hit a few keys, presenting a new piece of footage.

"Here we see Ms. Weying walking, on foot, northbound, as recorded by security cameras at the northwest corner of Powell and Lombard. We have set of such footage linking her walking path all the way through to its destination near Pier 39, one hour and thirty-four minutes after her departure from the hospital. We will now skip to that last piece of footage, evidence item 1243."

The intern hit a button on the TV, changing the input channel. A grainy, four-way-split security footage appeared. One frame displayed the intersection west of Pier 39.

Mentally, Anne swore up and down. She had thought for sure she and Venom had been out of sight by then. She forced herself to lean in, pretending to need a better look at the footage.

Onscreen, she walked out of one frame, then onto the frame showing the intersection. Anne could almost remember the argument going on in her head: Venom saying her caution would get Eddie killed, her saying that they had plenty of time, the traffic jams caused by his car chase had gummed up traffic all over.

The jury gasped in shock as Venom took over, even though they were viewing the grainy footage from across a room on a relatively tiny screen.

Anne used her own fake gasp to take a steadying breath, then jumped to her feet. Her chair fell over with a clatter.

Bailiffs around the room immediately began moving toward her.

"That's not- I can't-" Anne tried her best to make this freakout look real. "How did-"

As a bailiff grabbed her by the shoulder, she let her voice crack and went for the meat and potatoes. "I don't remember that! Why don't I remember that? _Why don't I remember that?!_ "

-Rocketwoman-

 **Explosion in the courtroom: Bombshell evidence Anne Weying picked up Venom - On Purpose! -** **Read more**

 **Watch It Happen: MyTube surfaces Footage of She-Venom! -** **Read more**

 **Aliens In Your Head: Having Venom may not be a fun time after all -** **Read more**

 **DA's case can't beat a Concussion: career wrecker! -** **Read more**

 **Host Defender wins again: Anne Weying Not Guilty -** **Read more**

 **Why is "Alien Biology" everyone's legal defense? Symbiotes examined in-depth -** **Read more**

 **The Weying case is Bullshit: We had her! - Insider Opinion by Ron Delaney -** **Read more**

 **r/tooAfraidToAsk: Who thinks Anne Weying is innocent of picking up that dog? Really? -** **Link**

 **The Glass Ceiling Presses on Men: Weying Should Be Guilty -** **Read more**

 **r/BestOfLegalAdvice: Fuck Weying. Memory loss doesn't remove culpability -** **Link**

 **r/VenomSightings: You guys are all idiots. I'm glad this subreddit got quarantined. [Locked] -** **Link**

 **r/VenomSightings: Guys! I got one! This one's real! -** **Link**

-Rocketwoman-

"Hey Eddie, it's Anne. Remember when you convinced me and Dan that Venom was dead? Well, check your texts.

" _We need to talk._ "

Eddie took his phone from his ear and scrolled through his texts. Anne had just sent him one before leaving the message, a link to some subreddit: r/VenomSightings.

" **She's pissed** ," Venom stated.

Eddie exhaled. "I get the feeling 'ghostwriting' isn't going to keep working as a job explanation."

-Rocketwoman-

 **A/N:**

 **It's actually pretty fun imagining all of the petty internet opinions that people would throw out about this case.**

 **I should note, I do not condone lying under oath, nor would I do so myself. The actions of fictional characters I write about do not reflect my opinions nor beliefs directly, only my opinions and beliefs about those characters' opinions, beliefs, and responses to equally fictional scenarios.**

 **Finally, if you prefer Eddie and Annie not to go their separate ways, I'm afraid now is the time to drop this fic. Next chapter, accusations fly.**

 **Chapter Name:**

 **Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand.**

 **I selected this name because Chardonnay is known for being one of the easiest wines to manipulate with sugar-lie treatment. I don't actually know what that means, but lying is a thing a character did this chapter! Cheers!**

 **(In case you couldn't tell already, I don't drink, nor know much of anything about wines.)**


	4. Chapter 4: Riesling

Chapter 4: Riesling

-Rocketwoman-

Disclaimer: "Anne Weying", "Eddie Brock", "Venom", and "Dan" are characters from the 2018 motion picture "Venom", rights to these belong to the owner of that franchise. If you haven't seen it yet, dear reader, what are you doing here? Go watch it!

-Rocketwoman-

As Anne approached the door to Eddie's, she again wondered how he'd been able to keep it. He claimed it was a bribe he gave the building owner from the money he made ghostwriting. Any of the numerous people coming after his insurance information, for things Venom did? Paid off with cash, from ghostwriting.

Anne had to wonder how she'd been so damn blind. There was a much simpler explanation, one much more accessible to Eddie: Venom was threatening these people.

It wouldn't last. Anne had prosecuted a few blackmail cases. There were always more people being blackmailed than there were blackmailers. There was always more for the blackmailers to lose than all the people they blackmailed put together.

She wasn't sure why she was going to warn him. If she was being sensible, she'd cut off all contact and run like hell. Dan had a strong background. He could probably get hired at an east coast hospital. That would be far enough, right?

As she lifted her hand to knock, Anne heard a loud clattering, followed by a splat. Her lawyer sense kicking in, she suspected the accident more likely had to do with her arrival than simple coincidence. Testing her hypothesis, she put her hand down without knocking.

After some scrambling around noise inside, the door opened to reveal an aproned Eddie Brock. She was ten minutes early and hadn't knocked, yet he knew to open the door anyway. As if she didn't have enough evidence he was still working with Venom.

"H- Hey. How are you, Annie?" He stepped back before she responded. "Uh, come in. I was… well…"

She stepped in. The oven door was open. Next to it on the floor, a baking pan lay face-down, surrounded by paper towels.

"I was cooking something, but… ovens are hot, you know? So I was cleaning that up and then I heard you... get… here."

"You heard my silent knock," Anne deadpanned.

"Well," Eddie rubbed the back of his head. "I kinda thought I heard someone knock, you know? Had a feeling-"

Getting to the point, Anne fixed Eddie with a glare, "When were you going to tell anyone?"

"Tell, uh, what?" Eddie fidgeted as he tried to appear casual. "There's nothing to know - you don't have any proof, I mean a bunch of kids on the internet, right? Ooh, Loch Ness Monster!"

Anne clenched her jaw. "And this?" She thrust a newspaper under his nose.

 **Methamphetamine cook house Uncovered, Staff slain by Mysterious Monster. Symbiotes Involved?!**

"A… coincidence?" Eddie said half-heartedly.

"The fuck is wrong with you?!" Anne exploded.

Eddie held up his hands. "Jesus-"

Anne jabbed a finger in his face. "What. The Fuck! Dan and I refinanced our _house_ to pay your legal fees-"

Trying to get a word in edgewise, Eddie began, "Yeah, I was actually just putting together-"

"Save it!" Anne barely resisted slapping him. "I _still_ don't know how I'm going to pay back Sophia for my own case-"

"I have the money!" Brock talked over her. "I've been trying to pay you back, okay? It, uh… just needs to transfer between some accounts."

Pausing Anne waited for a moment for her brain to cool off and catch up with what he was saying. He had acquired several hundred thousand dollars, somehow, in a couple of months. "Ghostwriting?" Anne asked.

"Yeah. Ghostwriting." Eddie nodded. "I got a few good contracts with-"

Anne slapped Eddie, hard. When her hand met his face, what she impacted was most definitely not human skin. Coils of inky darkness slammed into her, sending her flying across the room and, simultaneously, slamming the front door shut. A moment later, she impacted with the sofa in an unreasonably comfortable position considering the way she'd been tossed.

That did little to dispel her instinctive fear of the hulking black monstrosity crossing the room toward her.

" **Afternoon Annie. We need to talk**."

Anne swallowed her fear, inching back on the sofa just far enough to prop her back against the armrest. "If you hurt me, Eddie won't forgive you."

" **We know. That's partly why we have no intention of harming you**."

Unsure of what to think of the word "partly," Annie inched back a little further. "And throwing me across a room…?"

" **We were just helping you to sit down, relax, and let Eddie…** " Midway through the sentence, Venom's tendrils peeled back, deconstructing the toothy maw and revealing Eddie's face beneath. "... explain myself."

Anne pulled her legs back as Eddie plopped his now-human self at the other end of the couch. "Kidnapping is a form of harm, you know."

Eddie snorted a mockery of a laugh. "We're not gonna stop you if you want to leave right now. I'd just… rather you listen before reporting us to the police."

Anne waited.

After a long pause, Eddie started talking. "Venom and I both thought he was going to die in the rocket explosion. The difference was, I thought I would die too. Venom protected me from the blast, so there was barely anything left of him to protect me from the water two hundred feet down."

Deciding there was little harm in hearing Eddie try to justify himself, Annie listened.

"I broke… a lot of bones. But I wasn't dead and, somehow, neither was Venom. I clung to life, he pushed me toward it.

"Had Venom not been alive, I wouldn't have made it to the hospital. When the coast guard pulled me aboard their boat, one of my broken ribs punctured a lung. They thought I was done for, 'till Venom reinflated it.

"At the hospital, a keen-eyed doctor identified a wound in my side as shrapnel from the rocket. They put me in a CT machine instead of an MRI. That saved his life.

"Three months of fighting death later, the doctors finally considered me stable enough to be discharged. Stop one: the supermarket. When Venom realized that food was available that wasn't me, the supermarket and home became my only stops for a few days.

"As soon as Venom was talking again, I went to find you. Found Dan first, who couldn't quite believe I was alive. Turns out the police had been making treating you pretty difficult, as you were the only survivor in the Life Foundation mission control center and they needed to 'protect the witness.'

"It's… a bit of a story how, but Venom and I lured off your police guards and managed to get into your room. Your concussion was worse than the doctors thought. If Venom hadn't hopped over to heal you-"

Anne gagged. Venom had been _in_ her _twice_? Venom had fucked with her brain?! Was that why she thought the corpses of the spec ops team looked _delicious_ in hindsight? Was that why she was so okay with lying under oath?

Was she even still… herself? Was she really the same Anne who had been bowled over by a rocket explosion?

Anne unfolded from the couch and started for the window.

Eddie half got up to follow. "Are you okay?"

Breathing hard through her nose, Anne stared at the passersby on the street below. "Of course I'm not okay!" she hissed.

She glanced back. Eddie had sat back down. She returned her attention to the view outside the window.

After some deliberation with herself, Anne spoke. "Keep talking."

"Venom's visit also cured your medical coma, so I went to get Dan. The rest you know."

"Not even close," Anne growled. She rounded on him. "Where's the money from?"

Eddie's jaw twisted, his eyes sinking. Anne couldn't say she was used to the transformation, but at least she didn't run screaming as Eddie's head became Venom's. " **Bad people!** " Venom exclaimed, far too gleefully for Anne's stomach.

After a moment without a response from Anne, Eddie returned. "Extortionists, kidnappers, child pornographers - fucked up people."

"I assume they don't appreciate having their property taken," Anne pointed out.

"Uh… well," Eddie fidgeted, looking down at his hands. When he looked up again, his eyes were black-rimmed whiteness. " **They don't appreciate much of anything when they're dead** ," Venom pointed out, nearly catching Anne by surprise.

Anne crossed her arms. "And where do you draw the line, Eddie? When have you gone too far? Last I checked, people who cook drugs don't deserve capital punishment." She bent down, picking up the newspaper again.

" **I'll draw the line when the bad people are dealt with** ," Venom stated, growing more and more black tendrils across Eddie's body by the moment.

"When is that?!" Anne dropped the newspaper as she threw up her hands. "When are they dealt with? Am I going to be seeing schoolyard bullies maimed and murdered in the papers next month?!"

Eddie flinched, wrestling back control with a level of noticeable difficulty. "I would _never_ do that."

"You wouldn't," Anne agreed, "But you wouldn't have gone vigilante and murdered drug dealers five months ago, either. I don't think Venom cares!"

Pausing, Anne watched Eddie wait for his parasite to defend itself. Venom did not appear, eliciting a pained look from Eddie.

"We would never attack children," Eddie asserted. Anne could easily pick out the plaintive note in his voice, as he begged Venom to back him up.

Despite her assertion that Venom didn't care, Anne was not prepared for the stricken look that crossed Eddie's face. Had Venom just confirmed that he could? That he would? Anne felt her stomach drop to her feet. What else would the Symbiote do?

Eddie Rose from the couch. "Annie, I swear to you-"

Anne matched up and shoved him back down. "You don't _fucking_ get it! When you're with Venom, there isn't an 'I' and a 'Him,' there's a 'We.' Unless you're both on board with doing things right, one day you're _going_ to fuck up!"

"That's not how it works!" Eddie whined. "It's a partnership, yes, but if I don't want something to happen, _it doesn't happen!_ "

"Oh, of course." Anne hoped the sarcasm shined through. "I remember now; it doesn't happen. My mistake. I clearly don't fully understand your connection." Anne bit down hard on the end of her sarcasm, raising her hand for another slap. " _I did this too,_ you _idi- grk-_ "

As her palm came down, Eddie's arm shot up. Before the strike had even connected with Venom's block, the arm was black as pitch. Anne's eyes widened as the black spread across Eddie's body fully. Venom launched from the couch, lifting her by the throat.

"Gh-!" Anne saw stars as Venom shoved her against the apartment's brick wall.

" **Why do you keep doing that?** " the Symbiote spat, tongue and teeth mere inches from Anne's face.

She had expected a reaction from Venom, like the block. She had not expected this. She had not expected to be choked, shoved against a wall and… Oh God, she couldn't breathe. She couldn't think! "Eddie?" she squeaked.

The force on her throat left, leaving Anne to crumple to the floor. Through blurred vision, she made out black tendrils retreating into Eddie's sneakers. "Annie?! Annie, talk to me!"

"It... doesn't... happen...?" Anne wheezed on hands and knees, throwing his words back at him.

"If you didn't… keep provoking him…" Eddie trailed off, clearly seeing her side of the argument.

Anne clenched her eyes shut, focusing on breathing again. She had very much not expected that. So much for no intention of harming her.

"Y- You saw the results of the Life Foundation's search for Symbiote hosts," Eddie justified. "People died! Can you imagine that happening in a city? Jumping from person to person in a bathroom? On a plane?"

Anne could imagine that. It was scarier than Venom himself, honestly, because there was one little detail Eddie seemed to keep glossing over: she was a perfectly viable host and likely Venom's next choice after Eddie. "So don't… just… split." Anne coughed onto the floor, then rolled back to sit against the wall.

"Venom saved our lives!" Eddie clung to the fact. "Hell, he saved earth from his own people!" He looked at _her_ with fear and confusion. "Why would you suggest _killing_ him?!"

Anne took her time catching her breath for this response. She wanted out of this fucking room and out of Venom's life. If that meant leaving Eddie behind, she'd do it.

Waiting for her to recover, Eddie sat down on the floor, just in front of the couch.

"Eddie. Do you know why… I was on trial?"

He shrugged. "Because you and Venom killed some Life Foundation goons to save my life?"

"No." Anne took another breath. It was getting easier. "I was on trial because… I… allowed Venom to use me as a host, despite knowing… that likely meant… he'd use me to kill people."

The look on Eddie's face told Anne he didn't understand.

"They thought I was a monster not for failing to control Venom. They called me a monster because I helped Venom."

"That sounds like their problem," Eddie pointed out.

Anne wiped her brow. How could she get this through to him? "Do you understand why it's bad to hide a serial killer from the police?"

Eddie nodded, slowly.

"Then you should understand why…" Anne waved an arm in his general direction. "Why you _literally_ are the monster they claimed I was."

Blink. Blink.

Anne gesticulated, trying to get her point across. "The arguments we made in court were bullshit, Eddie! It wasn't Venom, it was _us_! _We've_ killed people!"

The conversation paused until Eddie broke the silence. "This is a surprise to you?"

Silence. Anne just sat in shock. She never once imagined she'd enter this conversation to find Eddie this accepting of his role in aiding and abetting Venom.

"When I…" Eddie looked down at the floor for a second. "The night after we woke you up, we were shopping at Mrs. C's grocery mart. It's a little spot just up the street from here.

"While I was there, a man came in, with a gun, demanding 'protection' money from Mrs. C. I had seen him before, robbing her in the same way. But before, I was a reporter hung out to dry by my network.

"Venom asked if this was a bad guy. I told Venom the guy was a bad guy.

"We walked over and threatened the hell out of him, stuff like eating off his limbs. Then, Venom added 'On second thought…'

"I knew exactly what Venom was planning. And we… bit off the guy's head. Instead of getting regular human food, we ate a human." Eddie splayed his palms in his lap, not meeting her gaze.

Anne wished she was surprised. "So during your case when Sophia offered to get you the list of SWAT casualties from your fight…"

"It wasn't that I didn't want the count," Eddie confirmed. "I didn't want to start counting."

Anne began levering herself off the wall, toward a standing position. "Well… I'm done."

"...Done…?" The look on Eddie's face turned to one of actual fright.

"Done," Anne confirmed. "Going home." Pushing off the wall, she stumbled fully to her feet. "Getting psych help." She wrapped her arms around herself. "And forgetting I know you."

Eddie blanched. "Anne, you're the only one I can talk to about this!"

"Good. Don't," Anne ground out, leaning on the wall between the windows as she made for the front door.

"But-"

"Don't." Wheezing, Anne pulled open the door.

Across the tiny hallway, a long-haired man in a leather vest was making out with some teenage girl. Upon hearing Eddie's door, the man's eyes snapped to it and, seeing Eddie behind Anne, he broke off the kiss and immediately began fumbling with his door lock.

"Annie-"

Anne pulled the door shut, then started down the hallway.

Entering her car out on the street, Dan spoke up immediately. "What the hell did he do to your neck?!"

"Venom put me in a chokehold," Anne admitted.

Hearing her voice, Dan's horror appeared only to grow. "Jeeeesus! We are going to the hospital right-"

"No." Anne found herself only mildly surprised she could talk over him, despite her throat. "We're going home."

In the corner of her eye, Dan bit his tongue. "Annie-"

"Dan." She met his worried gaze with exhausted eyes, and hoped her face passed on her message of _I've seen shit I'll never unsee_.

"... Home it is. But I'm having you checked out tomorrow."

"Deal," Annie agreed, reclining the passenger seat. "And call around a bit, ask for any good therapists with space. Discrete ones. You… you know why."

She saw one last worried glance from Dan before closing her eyes and going to sleep.

-Rocketwoman-

A few days later, Anne received a check in the mail without a return address, signed by Eddie. It covered all his legal fees, rounded up by a few thousand dollars.

She didn't want this blood money. But, as Dan pointed out, they'd be paying off the house for decades without it. She brought the dilemma to her first therapy session.

In the end, she cashed the check.

Then, despite herself, she went to look at Eddie's apartment. She arrived to find a poster ad hanging from the window. It was having an open house, looking for a new tenant.

As she began to leave, she noticed yellow tape around a grocery mart, just up the street. An active crime scene, just steps from Eddie's former home. From what she could see, it looked like someone had done a drive-by shooting of the place.

She left without getting the store's name.

-Rocketwoman-

 **A/N:**

 **Until and unless I can figure out enough about She-Venom to faithfully write the character, this is the end! Hope y'all had a "good" time! (Whatever you consider that to be.)**

 **Chapter Name:**

 **Riesling is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling white wines. Riesling wines are usually varietally pure and are seldom oaked.**

 **High acidity sounded right for this chapter, don't you agree? Cheers.**


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